It Is Guaranteed: Retaliation, Retribution, Revenge And Vengeance Always Results In Retaliation, Retribution, Revenge And Vengeance

The kidnapping and killing of three Israeli squatter youth whose parents usurped Palestinian land has produced a paroxysm of hatred and calls for reprisals in Israel. Whoever is responsible for it, the killing of the youth was a horrid and inexcusable crime, and the heart of any parent goes out to the bereaved families.

It should be noted that during the Israeli dragnet in the West Bank, some 9 Palestinians, some youth or children, have also been killed, and hundreds arbitrarily arrested. The heart of any parent also goes out to those bereaved families.

But assuming that Palestinians were the culprits, the social and political structures fostered by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s Likud Party form an essential context here. Social scientists always contextualize, an anathema to propagandists and the more glib of the journalists, who confuse it with excusing things. To put things in context is not to justify anything, it is to seek and understanding of human actions beyond the simple demonization of the Other.

The Likud has a policy of keeping the Palestinians stateless. Stateless people lack the right to have rights, in the phrase of Hannah Arendt and the US Chief Justice Warren Burger. They have no state to back their rights, therefore they have no real title to their property, no rights over their land, water or air, nor really even control of their own bodies. In some ways their situation is analogous to that of slaves.

Since the stateless lack a state, they also lack law and order. What most struck me from my last visit to a Palestinian refugee camp was how much of a frontier situation it was. There are no police. Everyone has to fend for themselves. And it is easy for predatory gangs to form.

That is, statelessness produces small violent groups such as Islamic Jihad and perhaps the Palestinian branch of the so-called “Islamic State” of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. It produces them because in the absence of formal state structures, such groups thrive in the interstices of society. And it produces them because statelessness and the consequent deprivation of basic human rights produces potent grievances.

If the Likud really wants an end to such incidents, then it should negotiate in good faith to bring about the kind of Palestinian state that could actually police Palestinian lives. Instead, Mr. Netanyahu, despite public denials, wants to make a Palestinian state forever impossible, because he sees it as a danger to his brand of Iron Wall Zionism, which is aggressive and expansionist and Jewish-supremacist. Netanyahu did everything he could to torpedo Secretary of State John Kerry’s peace process. One side-effect of statelessness is lawlessness. Netanyahu is actively choosing it.

Likewise, the Likud Party (and its coalition partners, some more barracuda-like than even the Likud itself) is dedicated to a vast project of stealing Palestinian land and resources on the West Bank. They are building beehives of colonies, which are solely Jewish and racist in character, excluding the native Palestinians from dwellings built on their own territory. The intended end game here of people like Avigdor Lieberman is likely that once a majority of the population in the West Bank is Israeli, an incident like the one that just took place will be used as a pretext to simply chase all the Palestinians out to Jordan or Egypt and then lock them out of their own country– i.e. a repeat of what was done in 1948.

It should be fairly obvious that if you take adolescents into the middle of the Palestinian West Bank and steal Palestinian land and build houses on it and shoot at Palestinians trying to harvest their crops nearby and bulldoze down their homes or dig tube wells so deep as to cause the Palestinian wells to run dry– if you engage in this settler-colonial enterprise, then you are exposing those adolescents you drag with you into it to danger.

It is still wrong. Violence in anything other than direct self-defense is always wrong, and innocent non-combatant life must never be taken. A resistance movement is legitimate, but its quarrel must be with soldiers.

In the way of politics, the killing will be used by the Israeli Right wing to demonize all Palestinians and to justify collective punishment of innocents among them, and as a pretext to take further property and rights away from them. Mr. Netanyahu seems to think he can use the murders as a basis for a campaign to destroy the Hamas Party-Militia in Gaza altogether. But Hamas is a side effect of Israeli brutalization of Palestinians in Gaza, who live under an economic siege, and if it were destroyed, something worse would take its place. Intolerable situations produce resistance, and resistance movements are often fanatical. Of course, the Israeli crackdown actions will produce a backlash from Palestinians in turn. The Likud, with its Ku Klux Klan kind of ideology, thrives on such a backlash– just as the Klan liked to see defiant African-Americans in the days of Jim Crow so as to make it easier to stage a lynching.

The Likudniks, whether in Israel or in the US, seem blithely unaware that they are operating in the same world as Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. He didn’t expect suddenly to lose a third of the territory he controlled. While the surprises awaiting the Likudniks aren’t exactly like those that confronted al-Maliki, that there will be unpleasant surprises is fairly predictable.

Grasping, indictive and petty policy always produces tragedies for those who pursue it.

211 comments:

Those young men were doomed when their so-called leaders and protectors flooded the occupied territories with thousands of angry young men looking for the three unfortunate boys. Now that they are dead, Netanyahu is all but guaranteeing that more young men and children will die on both sides. Is Netanjahu so foolish that he does not realize that there are killers and sociopaths that will do their best to keep up the murder-cycle and raise the ante? Netanyahu knows exactly what will happen and nothing will ever change until reasonable people get rid of such political leaders.

You cannot look into the photos of the faces of the three young men and not see yourself or your own children. Their life was taken from them by a ruthless and heartless killer and a system of unsustainable human injustice under state repression.

The moslem books instructs to kill the Jews. Which is the real problem.

"The Day of Judgement will not come about until Muslims fight the Jews(killing the Jews), when the Jew will hide behind stones and trees. Thestones and trees will say O Muslims, O Abdullah, there is a Jew behind me,come and kill him. Only the Gharkad tree, (a certain kind oftree) would not do that because it is one of the trees of theJews." (related by al-Bukhari and Muslim).

Only in the cities of these peoples that the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance, you shall not leave alive anything that breathes. But you shall utterly destroy them, the Hittite and the Amorite, the Canaanite and the Perizzite, the Hivite and the Jebusite, as the Lord your God has commanded you, so that they may not teach you to do according to all their detestable things which they have done for their gods, so that you would sin against the Lord your God. (Deut. 20.16-18)

And all the cities of those kings, and all the kings of them, did Joshua take, and smote them with the edge of the sword, and he utterly destroyed them, as Moses the servant of the Lord commanded. ...every man they smote with the edge of the sword, until they had destroyed them, neither left they any to breathe. As the Lord commanded Moses his servant, so did Moses command Joshua, and so did Joshua; he left nothing undone of all that the Lord commanded Moses.(Joshua 11:12-15)

Islamic State: “If Allah wills, we will kill those who worship stones in Mecca and destroy the Kaaba”

Robert Spencer Jun 30, 2014 at 9:17am Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, Jihadist intimidation and thuggery, Saudi Arabia Kaaba

This will not endear them to many Muslims. The Saudis themselves, who are no friends of The Islamic State, assiduously destroy religious artifacts in a bid to prevent “idolatry,” but since Muhammad himself is — according to Islamic tradition — supposed to have prayed in the Kaaba, they have not dared to touch it. Will an irresistible force here meet an immovable object? Muslims must reject and destroy all possible temptations to idolatry, and also must follow Muhammad’s example in all things. Can the Kaaba ipso facto not be an inducement to idolatry because Muhammad prayed there? Or must it be destroyed despite Muhammad’s example so as to prevent the worship of stones? Are Muslims to follow Muhammad in all things or are they to destroy all sources of idolatry? Can’t do both in this case! This will be interesting to watch.

“ISIS: We will ruin the Kaaba after capturing Saudi Arabia,” APA, June 30, 2014 (thanks to Tabitha):

Baku. Rashad Suleymanov – APA. Representatives of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) stated that they will ruin the Kaaba after capturing Saudi Arabia.

APA reports quoting Turkish media that ISIS wants to take control of Arar city of Saudi Arabia and start operations here.

ISIS member Abu Turab Al Mugaddasi said that they would destroy the Kaaba in Mecca: “If Allah wills, we will kill those who worship stones in Mecca and destroy the Kaaba. People go to Mecca to touch the stones, not for Allah.”

And they warred against the Midianites, as the Lord commanded Moses; and they slew all the males. ...And the children of Israel took all the women of Midian captives, and their little ones, and took the spoil of all their cattle, and all their flocks, and all their goods. ...

And Moses said unto them...Now therefore kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman that hath known man by lying with him. But all the women children, that have not known a man by lying with him, keep alive for yourselves.(Numbers 31:7-18)

And Moses said unto them...Now therefore kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman that hath known man by lying with him. But all the women children, that have not known a man by lying with him, keep alive for yourselves.(Numbers 31:7-18)

Three young men were murdered in Mississippi for objecting to an unjust system of priveledge and subjugation while attempting to overturn that system. These three young Israeli men were murdered because they were seen as part of an unjustice system. They were just there as targets of opportunity to be preyed on by killers.

The Israeli response of thousands of troops arresting and harrassing Palestinians will only guarantee more murder and more suffering.

Now go, attack the Amalekites and totally destroy everything that belongs to them. Do not spare them; put to death men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys.’” (1 Sam 15:2-3)

Three young men were murdered in Mississippi for objecting to an unjust system of priveledge and subjugation while attempting to overturn that system. These three young Israeli men were murdered because they were seen as part of an unjustice system. They were just there as targets of opportunity to be preyed on by killers.

The Israeli response of thousands of troops arresting and harrassing Palestinians will only guarantee more murder and more suffering.

Maybe Israel needs to simply execute the terrorists that are convicted of lethal crimes and not release them to murder again????

It's time for Israel to have the death penalty for murder and terrorism

Israel is an apartheid stateTue Jul 01, 02:48:00 AM EDTNow go, attack the Amalekites and totally destroy everything that belongs to them. Do not spare them; put to death men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys.’” (1 Sam 15:2-3)

ISIS member Abu Turab Al Mugaddasi said that they would destroy the Kaaba in Mecca: “If Allah wills, we will kill those who worship stones in Mecca and destroy the Kaaba. People go to Mecca to touch the stones, not for Allah.”

That must be why they want a nuke, so they can nuke the black rock. Maybe WiO can help.

What does that have to do with anything? The US has been dislodging secular leaders from Iraq, Syria, Libya and Egypt. It knocked off a democratically leader in Iran and assisted the Jihadis in ousting the secular regime in Afghanistan. The US attacked Christian Yugoslavia to help Muslim Albanians take over Kosovo. Israel, the Neocons and Aipac have all supported and encouraged most, if not all of these actions.

Israel has decided to establish religious colonies displacing Muslims and has recently bombed Muslim communities in Syria, Gaza and Palestine. What could possibly grow wrong?

This is a tribal god, in fact, a family god. He is the god of Abraham, Jacob and Isaiah. It is consistent with its creators to have him/it/her command destruction of the people whose lands they want to appropriate.

No country or society, in all of history, has been able to establish anything more than a temporary military technological advantage over its enemies. Do you think the temporary Jewish/religious colonies in Palestine will be the first?

Better check your history. Your God has been AWOL through some pretty rough periods.

The Israeli Air Force pounded the Gaza Strip early on Tuesday morning with 34 targets hit by jets in response to a barrage of rockets that pounded Israel's South on Monday.

Terrorists in Gaza fired 8 rockets since midnight into Israel. Four were fired at around midnight, and another four early on Tuesday, following the air force's strikes on targets in the Gaza Strip. All projectiles fell in open areas and failed to cause injuries or damages.

The great wrong of the recent past was all the killing of the wrong people.

On 9/11, I advocated killing a couple thousand of the right somebodies, sparing us the unjust task of killing everybody. In my opinion, using a punch list would have brought some semblance of peace in about a week. America would have been satisfied and much Islamic poison would have been purged.

If Netanyahu were a serious person, last night would have seen the death of much of the Hamas leadership. Abu Mazan would have gone ballistic for a day, and resumed business as usual, tomorrow...in Gaza.

While I will pray for the three lost lads and their families, their abduction and murder was/is a distraction. It does not rise to casus belli. The barrages of rocketry do. A nation which cannot or will not defend its borders has ceased to exist. This is the message Mr. Netanyahu sends every time he pisses into the wind.

You cannot know that. It could have been pledge week; they were earning their colors. Abduction, torture, and murder are typical of primitive tribes and bands. In the sense of their social evolution, the murderers conformed to the norm. Souvenirs were probably taken and the killers are now recognized heroes, possessors of fetishes. “Emic” is the description.

During the horrid search phase, one could not help but notice hundreds of heavily armed Israeli young men dealing with the Palestinians. There were no massacres, rapes, robberies. Culture tells.

If it was your son (or grandson) laying in a field in Valley Forge, murdered with his friends, for 18 days by native indians still pissed at the Europeans for stealing their lands would you be saying all the crap that you are saying today?

More bull. The whack jobs on the edges of every religion, every movement, every political faction have done this since uno dia. The commies have done it. The libs have done it. The fascists have done it. The Christians do it. The Muslims do it. And as we see, the Jews do it. If you can't convert or keep your people through logical argument, persuasion, or faith, silence the competition in one way or another. One of the ways these simpletons often choose is to burn books as if that will silence an argument. What happens next, you start stoning people like Muslim fanatics?

Sadly, the nut jobs will always have enablers like you making up excuses for them.

.DeleteWhat is "Occupation"Sun Jun 29, 10:54:00 PM EDT

Quirk, you just don't get it.

Israel is a refuge for Jews. After the shoah, the expulsions, the murders, the rapes, the pogroms?

...some interesting news...marvelously, this news may actually contain a conspiracy and murder (i.e. Phantom Ranger will not have to make it up as he goes)...

"The most interesting overnight news is that former French president Nicolas Sarkozy has been “held for questioning” by police investigating allegations that he tried to influence a judge investigating a illegal contributions to his campaign.

"Mr Sarkozy is alleged to have been helped to victory in 2007 with up to €50 million provided by Colonel Gaddafi and envelopes stuffed with cash from France’s richest woman, L’Oreal heiress Liliane Bettencourt. …

"The suggestion is that Khadaffy “bought” Sarkozy; and when the arrangement was threatened with exposure it is hinted that Sarkozy, with the witting or unwitting help of Obama and Cameron, may have tied up loose ends. So far nothing has been proved.

As Klein himself notes, it is fortunate that the Clintons are so incorruptible or we’d be in trouble. He writes “it’s a reasonable argument to say that that cash did more for the world in Clinton’s hands than in Qatar’s coffers. But it’s also reasonable to wonder whether Qatar donated that money to make sure they had a relationship with Clinton if they ever needed one.”

A hundred years before the advent of Hitler, the German-Jewish poet, Heinrich Heine, had declared: "Wherever books are burned, human beings are destined to be burned too."

On the night of May 10, 1933, an event unseen in Europe since the Middle Ages occurred as German students from universities once regarded as among the finest in the world, gathered in Berlin to burn books with "unGerman" ideas. …. http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/triumph/tr-bookburn.htm

May 20, 2008 - Orthodox Jews burn hundreds of New Testaments in latest act of violence against Christian missionaries in Israel. ... The Maariv newspaper reported Tuesday that hundreds of students took part in the book-burning. . . . http://www.foxnews.com/story/2008/05/20/orthodox-jews-burn-new-testaments-given-by-christian-missionaries-in-israel/

“To me the Zionists, who want to go back to the Jewish state of A.D. 70 (destruction of Jerusalem by Titus) are just as offensive as the Nazis.

With their nosing after blood, their ancient "cultural roots," ...their partly canting, partly obtuse winding back of the world they are altogether a match for the National Socialists.

That is the fantastic thing about the National Socialists,... that they simultaneously share in a community of ideas with Soviet Russia and with Zion.”

― Victor Klemperer, I Will Bear Witness: A Diary of the Nazi Years, 1933-1941

The move was publicised in a statement from Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office, the Associated Press reported. Students will receive scholarships to "engage international audiences online" and combat anti-Semitism and calls to boycott Israel, it was alleged.

In 2012, a Palestinian-run blog reported similar arrangements between the National Union of Israeli Students and the Israeli government. Students would be paid $2,000 to post pro-Israel messages online for five hours a week.

According to Israeli daily newspaper Haaretz, the most recent proposition is being spearheaded by Danny Seaman, who was slammed by the media for writing anti-Muslim messages on Facebook.

Students will be organised into units at each university, with a chief co-ordinator who receives a full scholarship, three desk co-ordinators for language, graphics and research who receive lesser scholarships and students termed “activists” who will receive a “minimal scholarship”, the Independent reported.

"The system of private property is the most important guaranty of freedom, not only for those who own property, but scarcely less for those who do not." Fredrich Hayek

The Israeli government has, to a large extent, continued the Ottoman legal system in regard to land ownership.

Thus, today the vast proportion of land within the State of Israel (roughly 93%) is owned and managed either by the Israel Lands Administration (ILA) or the JNF. This figure includes much of such extensive regions as the Negev and the Judean Wilderness (near the Dead Sea), which are sparsely populated.

Jewish settlements in the State of Israel usually are located on lands that are owned by the ILA or the JNF and that have been consigned to each settlement through long-term leases.

APARTHEID AND OCCUPATIONMore than 5 million Palestinians are denied equal rights by the state of Israel under a system of apartheid, a deliberate policy of racial or ethnic segregation.

Under Israeli military occupation, millions of Palestinians live in conditions which closely resemble the apartheid system that existed in South Africa: • No right of free speech, assembly or movement • Arrest and imprisonment without charge or trial • Torture • House searches without warrant • Assassination, extra-judicial murder • No right to vote for the Israeli government (even though it controls their lives)

Israel controls all Palestinian borders, all imports and exports, and all movement between towns and cities. THE GAZA STRIP, still surrounded, besieged and controlled by Israel, has been sealed off and effectively turned into the world’s largest open-air prison.

Forty Three presidents have presided over the country before Barack Obama. They were of varying abilities and intelligence. Some were not very pleasant to be around. But, I daresay all forty three would never, in a million years, have made an inappropriate joke like this:

Monday at the White House while hosting a reception to observe LGBT Pride Month, President Barack Obama call his White House Pastry Chef Bill Yosses "the crust master" because the president said, "I don't know what he does—whether he puts crack in them." But the president continued he had to adopt a no weekday pie rule.Laughing and applauding, the first lady Michelle Obama added, "Theres no crack in our pies."

Where in the wide, wide, world of sports did that come from? Joking about the scourge of the inner cities, where how many thousands of black kids end up like the pair of teenagers who were shot last night 1/2 mile from the president's house in Chicago:

A 17-year-old boy was killed and a 15-year-old wounded in a shooting about half a mile from President Barack Obama's Kenwood home late Monday night, police said.

The boys were outside, talking with several people inside a van, when one of the van's occupants raised a handgun and started shooting, Alfaro said.

The 15-year-old was hit in the upper arm, and his condition was stabilized at University of Chicago Comer Children's Hospital.

The 17-year-old was shot in the chest, Alfaro said. He died on the scene.

The shooting came less than five hours after three boys were shot in the Longwood Manor neighborhood, bringing to five the number of boys 17 or younger shot late Monday.

The vast majority of gun violence in Chicago is connected to drugs and gangs. Those kids shot so close to the president's home may have been involved in a drug deal gone bad. The battle over drug turf claims many more lives. Recall the huge deal made by Michelle Obama, attending the funeral of the black teenage girl who took part in the president's inaugiral parade and was shot to death a few days later. Violence fueled by a drug she and her husband joked about.

The White House has apparently removed the video, although Breitbart still has it. Can you imagine any other president making a joke about crack cocaine? It makes the president so common, so - hate to say it - low class.

"’Bob Mueller, who you would think would have a much more dangerous job dealing with terrorists all over the world, had people who were businesslike, didn't socialize and waited for him outside the gate,’… Now we have this group, overweight, wearing the most ridiculous blue uniforms with the most ridiculous blue caps, and they have guns that are visible.’ She declined to be named because she is worried about federal-government reprisals.”

“she is worried about federal-government reprisals”

In Israel, loud, banner waving demonstrators have been known to camp outside the PM’s home for days on end. To my knowledge, there have been no reprisals.

Hey, trying to save your buddy's lying ass is keen. You give him a break that you would not give others. Fact is: There is not a damned thing that could happen if he named his unit...other than those bad-ass boys at Stolen Valor outing his miserable ass.

The storm of controversy after Secretary of State John F. Kerry's warning that Israel risked becoming an "apartheid state" reminded us once again that facts, data and the apparently tedious details of international law often seem to have little bearing on conversations about Israel conducted at the highest levels of this country. As was the case when other major figures brandished the "A-word" in connection with Israel (Jimmy Carter comes to mind), the political reaction to Kerry's warning was instantaneous and emotional. "Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East, and any linkage between Israel and apartheid is nonsensical and ridiculous," said California Sen. Barbara Boxer. That's that, then, eh?

Not quite. Flat and ungrounded assertions may satisfy politicians, but anyone who wants to push the envelope of curiosity even a little bit further might want to spend a few minutes actually thinking over the term and its applicability to Israel.

"Apartheid" isn't just a term of insult; it's a word with a very specific legal meaning, as defined by the International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid, adopted by the U.N. General Assembly in 1973 and ratified by most United Nations member states (Israel and the United States are exceptions, to their shame).

According to Article II of that convention, the term applies to acts "committed for the purpose of establishing and maintaining domination by one racial group of persons over any other racial group of persons and systematically oppressing them." Denying those others the right to life and liberty, subjecting them to arbitrary arrest, expropriating their property, depriving them of the right to leave and return to their country or the right to freedom of movement and of residence, creating separate reserves and ghettos for the members of different racial groups, preventing mixed marriages — these are all examples of the crime of apartheid specifically mentioned in the convention.

Seeing the reference to racial groups here, some people might think of race in a putatively biological sense or as a matter of skin color. That is a rather simplistic (and dated) way of thinking about racial identity. More to the point, however, the operative definition of "racial identity" is provided in the 1965 International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (to which Israel is a signatory), on which the apartheid convention explicitly draws.

There, the term "racial discrimination" is defined as "any distinction, exclusion, restriction or preference based on race, color, descent, or national or ethnic origin which has the purpose or effect of nullifying or impairing the recognition, enjoyment or exercise, on an equal footing, of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the political, economic, social, cultural or any other field of public life."

A few basic facts are now in order.

The Jewish state (for so it identifies itself, after all) maintains a system of formal and informal housing segregation both in Israel and in the occupied territories. It's obvious, of course, that Jewish settlements in the West Bank aren't exactly bursting with Palestinians. In Israel itself, however, hundreds of communities have been established for Jewish residents on land expropriated from Palestinians, in which segregation is maintained, for example, by admissions committees empowered to use ethnic criteria long since banned in the United States, or by the inability of Palestinian citizens to access land held exclusively for the Jewish people by the state-sanctioned Jewish National Fund.

...Jewish residents of the occupied territories enjoy various rights and privileges denied to their Palestinian neighbors. While the former enjoy the protections of Israeli civil law, the latter are subject to the harsh provisions of military law. So, while their Jewish neighbors come and go freely, West Bank Palestinians are subject to arbitrary arrest and detention, and to the denial of freedom of movement; they are frequently barred from access to educational or healthcare facilities, Christian and Muslim sites for religious worship, and so on.

Meanwhile, Palestinian citizens of Israel must contend with about 50 state laws and bills that, according to the Palestinian-Israeli human rights organization Adalah, either privilege Jews or directly discriminate against the Palestinian minority. One of the key components of Israel's nationality law, the Law of Return, for example, applies to Jews only, and excludes Palestinians, including Palestinians born in what is now the state of Israel. While Jewish citizens can move back and forth without interdiction, Israeli law expressly bars Palestinian citizens from bringing spouses from the occupied territories to live with them in Israel.

The educational systems for the two populations in Israel (not to mention the occupied territories) are kept largely separate and unequal. While overcrowded Palestinian schools in Israel crumble, Jewish students are given access to more resources and curricular options.

It is not legally possible in Israel for a Jewish citizen to marry a non-Jewish citizen. And a web of laws, regulations and military orders governing what kind of people can live in which particular spaces makes mixed marriages within the occupied territories, or across the pre-1967 border between Israel and the occupied territories, all but impossible.

And so it goes in all domains of life, from birth to death: a systematic, vigilantly policed separation of the two populations and utter contempt for the principle of equality. One group — stripped of property and rights, expelled, humiliated, punished, demolished, imprisoned and at times driven to the edge of starvation (down to the meticulously calculated last calorie) — has withered. The other group — its freedom of movement and of development not merely unrestricted but actively encouraged — has flourished, and its religious and cultural symbols adorn the regalia of the state and are emblazoned on the state flag.

The question is not whether the term "apartheid" applies here. It is why it should cause such an outcry when it is used.

Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the self-proclaimed leader of the Islamic State stretching across Iraq and Syria, has vowed to lead the conquest of Rome as he called on Muslims to immigrate to his new land to fight under its banner around the globe.

What the fuck? It was all fun and games until now, but when they start talking about going after Rome Sweet Rome that's a whole 'nuther ballgame! Send in the troops!

@LCplSwofford: Taliban fighters state US Marines are un-killable and invicible. Taliban cannot use any tactic to gain an advantage over the Marines. One Taliban stated that US Marines are insane, "They run toward the sound of our guns rather than run away."

Of course they Taliban are talking about the real deal, not the ones from "Alpha Co. 1/9 Btln" who wanna ride on their coattails of glory.

“You obviously wish to strike some specific target, but need to determine the proper aiming of the gun(s). The first rounds down range from a single piece use approximate settings on the sight and rounds (some have adjustable range). By watching the actual impact of the round in relation to where you wanted it to hit, further adjustments are made until you have the correct aiming of the gun. Those rounds are fired for "adjustment". That information is fed into the remaining guns in the battery with corrections as they may not all be located in the same spot. Then the guns may commence firing the actual "fire mission" which is a certain number of rounds in a certain pattern to strike a certain target. That is the "Fire for Effect" part . The effect being the destruction of a target.”

133 G77 Nations vow to destroy America’s New World OrderJune 17, 2014. Bolivia. The American and European media are doing everything they can to black this news out. But it’s not going to stay a secret for long. As of this weekend, there’s a new New World Order on Earth and its enemy is the United States, the EU, the UN Security Council and the world’s shadow government led by the IMF and WTO. This new alliance of poor countries wouldn’t be much of a threat, except it includes two-thirds of the world’s nations including China and India....This is just the latest organized attack on a global financial system rigged by corrupt governments and the multinational corporations that control them. Just last month, Russia and China signed a long term trade alliance that represents the first major crack in the US Dollar bubble. The two countries agreed to stop using US Dollars in their transactions and instead use their own two currencies. The two largest banks from both countries immediately announced they would be dumping the US Dollar as well.

On top of that, the world’s ‘BRIC’ countries – Brazil, Russia, India and China – have publicly declared their goal of replacing the corrupted US Dollar with some other global default currency. Now that Russia and China have finally taken actual steps to do that, the remaining two-thirds of the world will most likely begin making preparations to stop using the US Dollar as well. It was only this weekend that 133 of them pledged to do just that.

The scary part for Americans is that both Washington and Wall Street have promised this would never happen, because if it did, it would destroy the US economic system and possibly the US itself. Read the Whiteout Press article, ‘Russia-China Deals move US Dollar closer to Collapse’ for more information.

To view a full list of the 133 nations that make up the G77, visit the Group of 77 website.http://www.g77.org/doc/members.htmlThe Saudi are on the list, as is the UAE and Iran.

Uncle Rufus, cousin Rufus, brother Rufus, half brother Rufus, 2 and 3rd cousin Rufus, in law Rufus, 1/2 uncle Rufus, would you please stop with the "Blow me" stuff? You are embarrassing us all and the entire Cherokee Nation, and the neighbors are starting to laugh at us.

Took a whole, fucking day. Who could have been so dense as not to see This coming - except Quirk (supposedly.)

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Tuesday confirmed that its decision a day earlier extending religious rights to closely held corporations applies broadly to the contraceptive coverage requirement in the new health care law, not just the handful of methods the justices considered in their ruling.

The justices did not comment in leaving in place lower court rulings in favor of businesses that object to covering all 20 methods of government-approved contraception.

Oklahoma-based Hobby Lobby Inc. and a Pennsylvania furniture maker won their court challenges Monday in which they refused to pay for two emergency contraceptive pills and two intrauterine devices.

They are among roughly 50 lawsuits from profit-seeking corporations that object to the contraceptive coverage requirement in their health plans for employees. Contraception is among a range of preventive services that must be included in the health plans, at no extra cost to workers.

The justices also ordered lower courts that ruled in favor of the Obama administration to reconsider those decisions in light of Monday's 5-4 decision.

Oh, rancid horseshit. Those old, Neanderthal motherfuckers can cite the enormity of my dick, but it has nothing to do with this steaming pile of misogynist crap of a decision.

Try fucking reading, before posting, for a change.

From Wiki:Background and passage[edit]

See also: American Indian Religious Freedom Act and Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act

This tipi is used for Peyote ceremonies in the Native American Church, one of the main religions affected by the Religious Freedom Restoration ActThe Religious Freedom Restoration Act applies to all religions, but is most pertinent to Native American religions that are burdened by increasing expansion of government projects onto sacred land.

"The question these cases are seeking to solve is whether for-profit companies have a right to exercise religious freedom under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, a federal law passed in 1993 that states the “Government shall not substantially burden a person’s exercise of religion even if the burden results from a rule of general applicability."

The owners of Hobby Lobby and Conestoga Wood Specialties don't have a problem with offering insurance that covers most forms of birth control, but they aren't willing to cover emergency contraceptives — like Plan B or ella -- or IUDs. Hobby Lobby contends its "religious beliefs prohibit them from providing health coverage for contraceptive drugs and devices that end human life after conception." >>>>>>>The question these cases are seeking to solve is whether for-profit companies have a right to exercise religious freedom under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, a federal law passed in 1993 that states the “Government shall not substantially burden a person’s exercise of religion even if the burden results from a rule of general applicability."<<<<<<<<< If they do, does the government have a compelling interest to override it in this instance?

therefore the Act states that the “Government shall not substantially burden a person’s exercise of religion even if the burden results from a rule of general applicability.”[3] The law provided an exception if two conditions are both met. First, the burden must be necessary for the “furtherance of a compelling government interest.”[3] Under strict scrutiny, a government interest is compelling when it is more than routine and does more than simply improve government efficiency. A compelling interest relates directly with core constitutional issues.[4] The second condition is that the rule must be the least restrictive way in which to further the government interest. The law, in conjunction with President Bill Clinton's Executive Order in 1996, provided more security for sacred sites for Native American religious rites.

First: You have to show that the owners' "exercise of religion" was Burdened. Since, the only thing that happened was the insurance company paying for birth control for some employees, that is quite a stretch in and of itself.

It must be awfully strange on that planet where he lives. There are, obviously, no individuals. Everyone is a hindu, or a jew, or a black, or a Mormon, or a brown, or a swede, or a muslim, or a white dutch, or a . . . . . . .

Draft Dodger Bob, you are projecting again. But take heart, there is hope for you, yet!Legally speaking anyway.

New York 'cannibal cop' walks free from prisonA New York City police officer who discussed a plot to kidnap, kill and eat women with a British pen pal has been released after his conviction was overturned ...The trial of 30-year-old Gilberto Valle - dubbed the "cannibal cop" - gripped the Big Apple and fanned global headlines, exposing the lurid world of cannibal fantasists.

So your advocating for the murder, butchery and eaing of Four Million Arizona residents is not illegal.Just deranged.

Magnificent Ronald and the Founding Fathers of al Qaeda

“These gentlemen are the moral equivalents of America’s founding fathers.” — Ronald Reagan while introducing the Mujahideen leaders to media on the White house lawns (1985). During Reagan’s 8 years in power, the CIA secretly sent billions of dollars of military aid to the mujahedeen in Afghanistan in a US-supported jihad against the Soviet Union. We repeated the insanity with ISIS against Syria.